We Gen Xers[1] have often been labelled as disaffected, ignored, sandwiched between the boomers (the trailblazers) and millennials (the innovators). I don’t think Douglas Copeland intended to malign us but we’ve always been referred to as the “slacker generation”. Nowadays, the media and organizational behaviourists focus on millennials and their style, their needs, their wants … So what about us? Most of us Xers are going to be in the workplace for another 20-plus years, so we too are interested in new ways of working, new applications, innovating, being agile … all the “millennial traits”. Are we really that different??

This summer Cisco Canada moved to a beautiful new office space. It is open concept with lots of informal shared spaces (we have fun booths and funky couches). At the same time, our summer interns were on-boarded. As the Collaboration Marketing Manager, I have a vested interest in understanding how people collaborate, so I found myself acting a little like a cultural anthropologist observing the way this generation worked.

They cluster and congregate in these shared spaces and work on projects jointly.

They use video on all their calls.

They embrace teamwork apps like Spark and WebEx with no training (you don’t have to explain things twice).

They don’t care much for the phone … that is, a landline phone with a receiver, anyway.

So a bit different from Gen Xers … but not so much.

Our HR VP David Heather recently participated in part one of a three-part webinar series around workplace transformation called “Is it Time for a Collaboration Officer?” where he talked about more productive ways of working – no matter what generation you fall in. He spoke about the importance of collaboration within an organization and how it affects employee engagement and company profitability. You can access the recording here and register now for the next two parts.

So what’s the lesson? We all have different styles, but we need to be more progressive in how we work or else we’ll become obsolete. Let’s not let the ‘Gen X’ label position us as laggards. We too are curious, early adopters and innovators.

p.s. when I told our Social Media Manager (millennial) that I was going to write this blog she really encouraged me to create a video instead … so we created this short companion video on three behaviours Xers should adopt to stay relevant.

[1] There are varying definitions of Gen X. For the purposes of this blog, Gen X is referred to people born between 1961 to 1981.

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

About Andrea Dil

Andrea Dil is the Cisco Canada Marketing Manager, Collaboration. She manages the strategic planning around Cisco’s Collaboration marketing campaigns in Canada, from brand awareness & relevancy to demand generation. Andrea is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg and holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the Schulich School of Business at York University. Andrea Dil est Marketing Manager, Collaboration du Cisco Canada. Elle gère la planification stratégique autour des campagnes de marketing de collaboration de Cisco au Canada, de la notoriété de la marque & de pertinence à la génération de la demande. Andrea est diplômé de l’Université de Winnipeg et détient un titulaire d’un MBA en Marketing et Stratégie de la Schulich School of Business de l’Université York.

Some of the individuals posting to this site, including the moderators, work for Cisco Systems. Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, not of Cisco. The content is provided for informational purposes only and is not meant to be an endorsement or representation by Cisco or any other party. This site is available to the public. No information you consider confidential should be posted to this site. By posting you agree to be solely responsible for the content of all information you contribute, link to, or otherwise upload to the Website and release Cisco from any liability related to your use of the Website. You also grant to Cisco a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free and fully-paid, transferable (including rights to sublicense) right to exercise all copyright, publicity, and moral rights with respect to any original content you provide. The comments are moderated. Comments will appear as soon as they are approved by the moderator.